Free at last!

Not sure how to take this sign.

My first reactions were a bit tongue-in-cheek.
1. Free prayer! That's fantastic. The prayer I'm currently buying is quite expensive and cutting a hole in my budget.
2. Darn it. It's Tuesday 6pm. Now I have to wait a whole week until God's next set of opening hours.

As I walked on, I genuinely wondered what they meant by free. Do they mean free as opposed to controlled by the church prayer leader, who plays the role of a pseudo-spokesperson to God on our behalf?

Or do they mean free as opposed to recited prayer of Sunday School, or the read-in-unison prayer of church? That today you might be able to pray from your own heart.

Or do they just mean plain free (no money required)? Have public acts of kindness become so rare that we have to emphasise that this is NOT pay-per-prayer? That this is not a fundraiser and that we are not asking for donations?

However they mean it, I don't think it's a great reflection on how we generally do prayer. Perhaps more prayer could be free prayer.

What do you think?

Is this the worst piece of evangelism?

Ok, there's probably been worse, but let me know what you think - or if you've had worse.

The background

My wife and I are downsizing. There's lots of stuff we no longer need (or never did). We care about the planet and about people. So we don't throw much in the bin. We try to sell or give away things to people who can use them. Online we've posted at least 200 items so far. One of these was a set of prayer flags my wife received from a work colleague. Apparently they are quite popular in Nepal.

Tim's inquiry:

Sat, 1:33 pm
Who do these prayers go to?

I wasn't sure where this was going, so took the bulk of my answer from wikipedia.

Our response

Sat, 6:11 pm
Hi Tim. Thanks for your question. The short answer to your question is "everyone". Traditionally, prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to gods, which is a common misconception; rather, the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all. I hope that helps.

I thought that was fairly clear and non-offensive. The next came this:

The reply

Sun, 4:49 pm
Hi Chris. Interesting philosophy and pagan superstition. I'm thankful that there is a true God who has and does answer prayers ( Psalm 65:2.). Apart from the many attributes God has, there are things he gives, love, joy and peace. ( Galatians 5:22). These are just a few. Real hope and comfort ( Romans 15:4) come from his true wisdom ( Psalm 111:10. James 3:17). But as you are aware there are many gods ( 1 Corinthians 8:5) . One thing that eludes many people is the true God's name. (Psalm 83:18). Jehovah. If you have a bible, please look at the scriptures mentioned. Usually older bibles do have the name of God. Sadly most modern bibles have omitted his name.
Thank you.
Regards.
Tim

Good grief

Clearly Tim is a Jehovah's Witness and (I'm guessing) never had any genuine interest in the flags. Instead he was just seeking (or forcing) an opportunity to trumpet his beliefs.

Three things puzzle me about this.
1. He seems to assume I am not Christian - and yet he quotes the bible as his proof of how wonderful god is. If I wasn't Christian why would I give two hoots what the bible says?
2. I'm still puzzled that people use references like "1 Corinthians 8:5" expecting that a non-Christian knows what to do with little piece of code. Of course it's Google-able, but he's talking hard-copy bible.
3. Obviously there's a huge vibe of 'your beliefs are stupid', 'I follow the true god' and 'you should too'. Does that ever work?

Interested to hear you thoughts.